Im about to give up now

[lazarus0530]

I just fermented a nut brown ale. I let it sit for 3 weeks. All my readings were perfect. It looks and smells great. Before I bottled it I gave it a taste. Ugh! It had a weird taste like metallic . I have done everything right. I'm done! I've done 6 batches and only one came out great. I have cleaned and sanitized every thing. I have gotten my water from bottled spring water . I have followed all the "experts" advice. I love brew'n but I hate this not good tasting beer. I'm hoping after 3 weeks of conditioning it will go away but I doubt it. Any advice would help but I'm clueless.

 

[althea]

Don't give up just yet. You're tasting 3 week old flat beer, it just isn't going to taste that great. If it smells good, I think it will taste good in the end.

It looks fine.

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

are you controlling your fermentation temperature?

 

[McGarnigle]

"only one came out great"

Were the other merely good or average, or were they bad?

 

[lazarus0530]

"only one came out great"

Were the other merely good or average, or were they bad?

Every thing is controlled. And merely good ...I guess I gotta wait til the bottles are conditioned .
Nothing get fermented over 68 degrees.

 

[Polaris96]

Don't give up just yet. You're tasting 3 week old flat beer, it just isn't going to taste that great. If it smells good, I think it will taste good in the end.

It looks fine.

I think that's very wise advice. Even if you are totally despairing, save a few bottles. Lay them down and sample them in a month.

 

[Ace_Club]

Give it time and don't give up.

It's hard to wait to drink the beer, and often you will notice on the last bottle (or last pint if kegging) that you just drank the best tasting bottle (pint) of that batch. Age works wonders for beers.

 

[JLem]

Don't give up. If you are paying attention to the brewing process, then the problem is fixable. It might be the pH of your water...or the metal of your boil kettle...or old extract.

Did your other beers have this same metallic off-flavor? What made them not "great"? Are you doing extract kits or all grain? What are your fermentation temps?

If you are paying attention to all the details and listening to all the "expert" advice then the folks on this board should be able to help you pinpoint what is happening that makes your beers not turn out to your liking. Don't give up yet!

 

[McGarnigle]

Every thing is controlled. And merely good ...I guess I gotta wait til the bottles are conditioned .
Nothing get fermented over 68 degrees.

"Merely good" doesn't sound all that bad. I personally wouldn't expect any of your first beers to be great, but of course we all have our own definitions of what is great and what is good.

 

[lazarus0530]

I'm really try'n all my beer is all grain. All my kettles are stainless. I'm try'n not to give up but damn it's pissing me off. I really hope the conditioning pays off.

 

[cmoon]

I'm really try'n all my beer is all grain.

Ah! I was completely stumped on this assuming you were doing extract and hence using bottled water would be perfectly all right.

If your gonna do all-grain, you really need to check your water. Did you use 5.4 buffer to try to hold your pH in check (though there's a question about how effective this is.)

 

[AL73]

my first 3 batches they where sour beer due an infection (porter, pale ale and stout) the fourth one was a belgian ale and throw it in the restroom.. i was in your same desperate situation. I was racking to secondary in every batch and my sanitation skills where not the correct. I almost throw the towel in brewing but in the fifth batch with extra careful procedures, transferring directly to the bottling carboy and star san..... make a excelent beer!...

thats true. flat beer doesnt mean is going to have that flavor... keep it going!, cheers

 

[lazarus0530]

Ah! I was completely stumped on this assuming you were doing extract and hence using bottled water would be perfectly all right.

If your gonna do all-grain, you really need to check your water. Did you use 5.4 buffer to try to hold your pH in check (though there's a question about how effective this is.)

I never checked it. But on my eba I used the same water and it was awesome. Does carb'n the beer increase flavor? I never found this true with my other beers . it tasted the same flat as it did carbed. I'm determined now to find out what's going wrong.

 

[Mpavlik22]

I never checked it. But on my eba I used the same water and it was awesome. Does carb'n the beer increase flavor? I never found this true with my other beers . it tasted the same flat as it did carbed. I'm determined now to find out what's going wrong.

If I were you I would carb it then re-try. Carbonation does not increase flavor, but definitely affects it. Carbonation adds so many things to beer. It is taken for granted how much carbonation adds & develops the beer.

 

[cmoon]

I never checked it. But on my eba I used the same water and it was awesome.

Different grain bills are going to produce a different pH in your mash. This is why historically different countries (with different waters) are famous for different beers.

My issue is you know a pretty much everything about your process, but you have this big question mark out there which is your water. Personally I think that's your most likely culprit, if you've got everything else nailed down.

Certainly carbonation will change your perception of the beer, but if you have weird off flavors further carbonation isn't going to change those (or at least it shouldn't).

The problem is, none of these things are really good explanations of why your beer should have a metallic taste. According to Palmer that would typically be a brewpot issue, but I could also see it being the result of a high iron content in the water (which also shouldn't be an issue if you are using bottled water.)

 

[Kula]

boil some water in each kettle. let it cool. taste the water. just an idea.

aside from the kettle idea, boiling grains (or steeping at too high a temp), or the PH factor mentioned before could play a role.

 

[eastoak]

it takes a while to get your brewing dialed in, i dumped a few batches before i started getting good results. some people get it right right away but others don't, keep at it.

 

[lazarus0530]

it takes a while to get your brewing dialed in, i dumped a few batches before i started getting good results. some people get it right right away but others don't, keep at it.

I won't stop!

 

[mrduna01]

I never checked it. But on my eba I used the same water and it was awesome. Does carb'n the beer increase flavor? I never found this true with my other beers . it tasted the same flat as it did carbed. I'm determined now to find out what's going wrong.

Carbed beer is not going to increase any flavors per say that I know of but it does taste better after carbing due to the conditioning time.

 

[Morkin]

What are you sanitizing with?

 

[dantheman13]

The problem is, none of these things are really good explanations of why your beer should have a metallic taste. According to Palmer that would typically be a brewpot issue, but I could also see it being the result of a high iron content in the water (which also shouldn't be an issue if you are using bottled water.)

Good point. Is it probable that bottled water would have high enough iron to create metallic off flavors?

How big of a brewpot do you have? I know you can buy 5 gallon aluminum pots for under $30 at Walmart if you want to rule that out as being the cause.

Whatever it is, please update this thread. I am sure we all want to know what you find out!

 

[ajf]

I've had a couple of brews that tasted metallic, but thew had been conditioning for several weeks after kegging.
In both cases, I left them to condition for several more weeks, and the off flavor was completely gone.

-a.

 

[05m50dan]

Do not use aluminum pots! This will add to off flavors! Use a Stainless Steel pot!

 

[LandoLincoln]

You need to give us a rundown of all of your hardware. Are you using ALL stainless equipment (fittings, valves, washers, etc)? What kinds of tubing are you using? My friend and I started off using a rubber radiator hose material (hey, don't laugh at me) for our first batch and I do believe that gave our beer some funky off flavors. We switched to high temp silicon hoses and the beers came out a lot better. We also started using campden tablets because we found out our water was being treated with chloramines. Chlorine dissipates in a boil. Chloramines do not. That probably helped a lot as well.

 

[HopKeller]

Do not use aluminum pots! This will add to off flavors! Use a Stainless Steel pot!

What!? This is nonsense.

 

[brick]

When I started brewing it took a hell of a lot of effort to just sit back and wait for it to be ready. You just have to put the bottles away for a while and forget about them. I still have a taste at bottling time out of curiosity and to make sure something **really** bad didn't happen, but my beer never tastes right directly out of the fermenter. The Guinness FES clone in particular took two months, but it was incredible at the end of all waiting period. For now I guess it's relax, don't worry, have a Sam Adams?

 

[KevinW]

Just out of curiousity, have you used a variety of hops in your beers or do you generally stick to 1 or 2?

I was getting poor taste results in some of my beers when I read up and realized it was the Willamette hops! I am in NO way downing Willamette but when I took them out of my beers the metallic-like taste I was getting was gone.

Anyway, just a thought and I truly hope you work out your issues cause it would be a shame to lose a homebrewer to "technical difficulties"!

 

[rollinred]

If you use Star-san try using Iodophor.

That fixed all my issues overnight... that is after spending lots of money on stuff I didn't need.

 

[dantheman13]

What!? This is nonsense.

Yeah... there are a few resources here and elsewhere that dispell that particular myth. I was suggesting because it is a relatively cheap way to rule out one aspect of the OP's equipment.

 

[mrduna01]

Do not use aluminum pots! This will add to off flavors! Use a Stainless Steel pot!

False. Oh this wasn't a quiz? . I kid. But I have used nothing but aluminum for well over a year. No problems.